The Tumultous History of US Banks

As we are going through this economic crisis that is hitting our banking institutions so hard it is useful to have a little context for light. John Steele Gordon, at the Wall Street Journal, provides this short statement of the roots of our current crisis:

"In the 1990s interstate banking was finally allowed, creating nationwide banks of unprecedented size. But Congress's attempt to force banks to make home loans to people who had limited creditworthiness, while encouraging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take these dubious loans off their hands so that the banks could make still more of them, created another crisis in the banking system that is now playing out."